Slashdot Mirror

Right now, most security equipment is NTSC video; which means low resolution, crap recordings. But HD is here -- it's just that the multichannel DVRs and switches and so forth aren't really taking over from the crap NTSC stuff the way they should, even though it's been a couple years now. The difference between video and HD for security is *amazing*. I'm still stuck with video, and we've had a couple of incidents where the video should have helped... but you just can't make out details worth spit. With HD... whole 'nuther ball game -- we've got one HD monitor / recorded I cobbled up. It's amazing. Did I mention NTSC video sucks? Yeah. Sucks.

If I were you, I'd tell your company to wait a few years. Seriously. Otherwise you're going to be on the trailing edge of basically crappy security gear -- everyone else's control center will have the good stuff, and you'll still be trying to expense off a zillion bucks worth of junk.

Do they work with Linux?

I have several infrared high resolution closed circuit security cameras at my home from this company which works well for me www.supercirucits.com. They have some high resolution webcameras that you can see if it works for you http://www.supercircuits.com/search?keywords=ip

For decent cameras on the cheap, go to supercircuits.com and browse their collection of recorders and cameras. They have a pretty large array of IR-boosted cameras as well.

Outside of that though, one of the best things you can do to increase both the effectiveness of your cameras and the security of your porperty is to install lighting over as much of your property as possible. Night/Motion-sensing lights can be had very cheaply and will do more to deter nighttime theft and/or break-ins than anything else you can do.

You may think that the video quality of a non-megapixel camera is bad, but the reality is that the majority of commercial systems in use today simply don't use them. The general idea commercially is to put as many cameras out there as economically possible, give them adequate lighting (ALL cameras need good lighting, unless you start talking about very pricey ones), and choose a recording system that provides an adequate storage duration (usually 30 days) with a decent framerate and image quality.

A decent quality 4-8 camera networkable and motion-sensing video system can be had easily these days for well under $2000. Now, if someone else is doing the installation, that price can go way up. It's far cheaper to do it yourself.

A buddy of mine has purchased some security cameras from these folks, good quality stuff. http://www.supercircuits.com/ Some good lower cost cameras would be the PC177IR-4, 5 or 6 model that are weatherproof IR color day/night cameras. The most expensive piece of gear you'll want will be a DVR capable of internet / network access. They support X number of cameras, depending on the model also. (normally 4, 8,9, and 16) Hope this helps some. (not affiliated with super circuits btw)

Actually, contrary to some of the posts here, security cameras are quite sensitive in the near-IR and they don't use a flash. They use near-IR LEDs to provide illumination.

Anyone interested in security cameras and equipment ought to check out http://www.supercircuits.com/

supercircuits. they have them.

So? You turn off the obvious-looking 'video camera' on your dashboard and let the other one roll - making sure that the "these premises are equipped with non-disablable(sp?) recording devices" sticker is on the OTHER side of the car.

http://www.supercircuits.com/ has some reasonably-priced toys.

You can always try using DVR appliances instead of standard computers running Windows or Linux. Most of these appliances now have network interfaces that allow you to access the video remotely from the Internet.

Supercircuits has a lot of camera and recording gear. The DMR3-CD-PW-16 has 16 channels, up to 2500GB disc capacity, compression, built-in CD-R, etc. If you're using regular composite video sources, it would be possible to build one of these yourself with a bunch of 4 input video capture cards.

If you're using IP cameras that stream MP4 or whatever over ethernet, why not employ a VPN? You can get a nice hardware VPN endpoint such as one of those SOHO Sonicwalls (google for it) on each end, or a linux box on both end as a VPN endpoint.. Most of those cameras don't support VPN but you can easily put a router in between that will do the job.

Good luck

Supercircuits has a lot of camera and recording gear. The DMR3-CD-PW-16 has 16 channels, up to 2500GB disc capacity, compression, built-in CD-R, etc. If you're using regular composite video sources, it would be possible to build one of these yourself with a bunch of 4 input video capture cards.

If you're using IP cameras that stream MP4 or whatever over ethernet, why not employ a VPN? You can get a nice hardware VPN endpoint such as one of those SOHO Sonicwalls (google for it) on each end, or a linux box on both end as a VPN endpoint.. Most of those cameras don't support VPN but you can easily put a router in between that will do the job.

Good luck

Use this camera, illuminate with this device and use a C-mount lens from this page if you are comfortable with removing the electronic iris in some of these older, but superb qulity, lenses.

You will be able to read a license plate at 75 feet in complete darkness.

Use this camera, illuminate with this device and use a C-mount lens from this page if you are comfortable with removing the electronic iris in some of these older, but superb qulity, lenses.

You will be able to read a license plate at 75 feet in complete darkness.

I've used tiny cameras from http://www.supercircuits.com/ for monitoring wildlife. The B&W cameras are very small and very sharp, yet cost as little as $30. Maybe match one with a tiny portable TV? (If they have the right inputs).

Seeing as how I did this very thing last night... just grab 8 AA batteries and a holder, then connect the holder to the camera/transmitter. Absolutely no funkiness, just plain 12 volts.

Of course, you can also replace the crappy camera with a decent one (try Supercircuits). You might want details on the wiring for hooking it up, too.

Oh but we have. Picture. We set one of these up with a mini wireless camera and a bunch of LEDs for headlights. Granted it's not the most powerful thing in the world, but the car we had been using was too tall to fit under some of the conduits in the ceiling. With the addition of a skid plate to prevent filpping and some track tensioners to prevent the tracks from falling off, we managed to pull a string across the ceiling tiles, then use the string to pull any coax or other cables we wanted. And after about 5 hours to get this all working right, we probably saved a good 30 minutes of cable pulling hassel ;-)

I'm setting up a B&W cam (from Marlin P Jones & Associates) for the same purpose (baby cam). The nice thing is that CCD cameras are very infra-red sensitive unless they incorporate an IR filter. (You can test yours by observing how well it "sees" an IR remote's beam.) I've wired up two banks of IR LEDs as a light source (20 50-cent LED's in series/parallel). Baby can sleep in complete darkness while Big Brother (well, Big Mother and Big Father) watch.

Good cameras (from MPJA, SuperCircuits, and others) are cheap enough that there really is no reason to fool with toys like the camera mentioned in the base article. The X10 stuff is as cheap and is at least barely usable (with good lighting and short distances). But if you're half-way handy with electronics, you can do a lot better assembling a system yourself for just a bit more money.

-Ed

I did some research for a robot project some time ago, here are some cheap, small, light cams:

http://www.quasarelectronics.com/cmos_cameras.htm
http://www.mars-cam.com/frame/optical.html
http://www.supercircuits.com/

cheers
mike

I have a conventional security system, although I'm also looking at some video options, due to the street crime outside my place, which is considerable. On a budget it's difficult to get all the options you want. For cheap, non-digital cameras try Supercircuits. You can get a decent B&W camera for well under $100. These output a regular NTSC video signal which can be plugged into a TV, VCR, or video capture card. This type of signal is very easy to manage, with a wide variety of wireless links, etc., available for fairly little money.

The main problem with video is storing the signal. A Tivo would be very well-suited to security applications, if the software were changed to allow motion detection or other event-based recording, and to allow uploading of images to an offsite location.

If you decide to store the signal onsite, you could put the video equipment in a hidden, secure location and wire up everything to work remotely. Smarthome has a lot of tricky ways to do this using coax. The best suggestion I saw from them was to use RF modulators to put different video signals on different TV channels on a single wire throughout the house. Instead of running, say, an entire cable signal to a box next to the set, you put the cable box in a closet and feed its output to channel 3, and your security camera to channel 5, etc. This system allows any video emitting device to be viewed from any TV or VCR by simply changing channels. The catch is that you need an infrared relay to control the equipment from another room. Smarthome has relay systems which transmit infrared signals back down the coax to a receiver next to the cable box, using a different frequency that doesn't interfere with the TV channels.

Their stuff can be pricey, but you can shop around other places for similar equipment. I've found that an RF modulator for one channel will run around $65, but you might already have a channel 3 out on one device, so you get that one free. You can also get multichannel 900 MHz or 2.4 GHz wireless links for around $100, so wireless distribution is also a possibility. The infrared relays are in the $100-200 range; maybe someone could suggest a cheaper solution.